Design for Learning
We know what we do well: we offer students an excellent technical education with hands-on practical work and often hear feedback from employers such that we know our graduates are “work ready”. Our graduates enjoy the small class sizes, the opportunity to get to know their lecturers and emphasize the importance of working with lecturers on practical real-life projects. We excel in producing technically excellent engineers, many of whom have gone on to create and manage large consultancy and construction companies.
However, the world of the engineering profession and society as a whole is changing. Engineers can no longer be satisfied with becoming technical experts. We must lift our focus from the drawing or from the calculations and envisage what the world will look like in years to come.
Engineers of the future will be presented with complicated, complex problems and their role in the development of sustainable solutions to global problems will become even more critical. Recent literature highlights the need for engineering professional skills to include technical, non-technical and attitudinal skills (Beagon et al, 2019).
Skills Identification
Employers recognise that the future is changing and as such the structural engineer’s role is changing along with the skill set required. The skills gap has been acknowledged yet there is no consensus on which skills are most important for these engineers. A review of the most recent relevant literature alongside chartership requirements of the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and Engineers Ireland (EI), as well as consideration of three seminal consultation and analysis reports on the future skills in the sector, led to the identification of seven skills. These are traditional, though evolving skills related to communication, technical ability, management and engineering practice as well as emerging skills related to sustainability, technology and digitisation and society. It is accepted, however, that there may be different conceptions of each term, therefore, the next stage was the co-creation of definitions for each of these skills with undergraduate structural engineering students.
Co - Create Definitions
Focus groups were used to engage students in a conversation around the meaning and importance of each skill resulting in specific action-orientated definitions for each skill. Co-creation has been described by Ryan and Tilbury (2013) as a pedagogical idea that emphasises learner empowerment, engaging learners in constructing and questioning knowledge and learning.
The rationale for selecting these students is that they have a better range of educational experiences when compared with first or second-year students and so they are best equipped to define the skills that are presented to them. We also hope to assist them in developing their portfolio of skills development this year and also in their final year.
​
The focus group was carried out remotely through Microsoft Teams after all students had signed and accepted the ethical approval form. Taking each skill in turn, students were prompted initially to individually consider each skill and then discuss in the group what that skill meant to them and what actions could help to build the skill - a sample of the action list is shown below for each skill.
Programme Review
A programme review of teaching and assessment of professional skills in a structural engineering programme was carried out. In a systematic process, lecturing staff mapped the modules they teach against a set of professional skills. The definitions of these professional skills were co-created with students as part of work package 1.
The programme map was then analysed to provide insight into the depth to which professional skills are being assessed. This analysis underpinned the review of the teaching of professional skills and led to the identification of both gaps and opportunities to introduce new learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment techniques.
​
The radial maps below show the current mapping of the extent to which we teach each skill in the programme. The future map indicates the outcome of our discussions with all lecturers on the programme and the opportunities to update-modules to include these additional skills. This activity is one of our goals to sustain the work completed in this project.
